{"id":513330,"date":"2026-01-10T15:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/513330\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:21:11","slug":"shared-interest-in-reunion-between-mets-slugging-utility-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/513330\/","title":{"rendered":"Shared Interest in Reunion Between Mets, Slugging Utility Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/06\/star-free-agent-cody-bellinger-gaining-edge-with-mets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Mets<\/a> could potentially re-sign a familiar face this offseason. Free agent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/martest01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-10_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Starling Marte<\/a> and the Mets share mutual interest in a reunion, sources first indicated to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/mets\/onsi\/news\/source-mets-and-starling-marte-have-mutual-interest-in-reunion\" target=\"_blank\">Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-82329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_23581989-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"766\" height=\"503\"  \/>Jun 19, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Mets right fielder Starling Marte (6) hits an rbi double during the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports<br \/>\nReport: Mets Interested in Starling Marte Reunion<\/p>\n<p>Marte is coming off a season in which he slashed .270\/.335\/.410 with a .745 OPS, nine home runs, and 34 RBI in 98 games for the Mets. He has dealt with a plethora of injuries during his four years with the club. Over the past two seasons, Marte has had a nagging right knee injury and underwent double groin surgery after the 2022 season, which affected his play in 2023, limiting him to just 83 games.<\/p>\n<p>Marte\u2019s strongest season in a Mets uniform came in 2022, his first year with the club. The outfielder-turned-designated-hitter was a National League All-Star and slashed .292\/.347\/.468 with a .815 OPS, 16 home runs, and 63 RBI in 118 games.<\/p>\n<p>Marte\u2019s Future<\/p>\n<p>Marte, 37, finished out his four-year, $78 million contract he signed ahead of the 2022 season. After four seasons with the Mets, there is a distinct possibility he played his last home game at Citi Field. However, the two-time All-Star does not want that to be the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly god knows, but with continued good health, I\u2019d love to have the opportunity to play at least three or four more years,\u201d Marte said in an interview, \u201cand continue to be part of this team and continue to help the younger guys grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Top League Content<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Marte and superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=sotoju01,soto--004jua&amp;search=Juan+Soto&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-10_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Juan Soto<\/a> have a close friendship. That friendship grew even closer when Soto joined the team ahead of the 2025 season, when he landed the largest contract in professional sports history at 15 years and $765 million. Amid clubhouse issues last season, Soto told the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/08\/27\/sports\/starling-martes-importance-to-mets-juan-soto-has-only-deepened\/\" target=\"_blank\">New York Post<\/a> that Marte was actually the captain of the team.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Juan Soto and Starling Marte were at the Bad Bunny concert in the Dominican Republic tonight<\/p>\n<p>(via IG\/marte06) <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y5kAtNj7yk\">pic.twitter.com\/Y5kAtNj7yk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SNY_Mets\/status\/1992098543042269641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">November 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Starling Marte] is literally the leader of this team \u2014 I feel like he\u2019s actually the captain of this team,\u201d Soto told The Post. \u201cHe brings everybody together. He\u2019s bringing the energy that we need. He\u2019s a guy who has been stepping up every single time, it doesn\u2019t matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is actually the real deal of the team. He\u2019s the model of the team. Everybody, when they want to talk and get to know something or have a conversation, they can go to him. He\u2019s actually the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For a Mets team that had a ton of clubhouse issues, Marte was a bright spot, which is part of the reason why the Mets have some level of interest in bringing him back. The return of Marte would also appease Soto, who would continue to get to play with his close friend.<\/p>\n<p>If re-signed, Marte could return as a bench piece who can serve as a part-time DH and outfielder, similar to the role he had last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Mets could potentially re-sign a familiar face this offseason. Free agent Starling Marte and the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,134,101,4,2046,45726,1690,61,2548,4203,1420],"class_list":{"0":"post-513330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-juan-soto","10":"tag-mets","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-free-agency","13":"tag-mlb-offseason","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-mets","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkmets","18":"tag-starling-marte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115871487484022740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}